1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motor vehicle lock, especially a side door lock, but also a rear door lock or a hatch lock, with lock elements, such as a rotary latch and a detent pawl and with a lock mechanism for controlled actuation of the detent pawl, the lock mechanism having a detent pawl lever which is supported on a housing-mounted pivot axis, an inside actuation lever which can be actuated from the inside door handle and which is supported on a housing-mounted pivot axis acting in the same direction, a coupling lever which couples the inside actuation lever to the detent pawl lever or decouples from it and which is supported on a pivot axis which acts in the same direction, and a central interlock lever which is supported preferably on a housing-mounted pivot axis acting in the same direction, which couples the outside door handle to the detent pawl lever or the detent pawl or decouples from it. The central interlock lever, on the one hand, can be moved by a motorized central interlock drive into the release position which couples the outside door handle to the detent pawl lever and the detent pawl and a locked position which decouples the outside door handle, and on the other hand, can be mechanically moved out of the locked position into the release position by actuating the inside actuation lever, and the coupling lever can be moved by a mechanical locking element and/or by a motorized anti-theft drive, especially via an anti-theft lever (12), into the coupling position and the decoupling anti-theft position and in the anti-theft position the inside actuation lever (7) executing preferably one idle stroke.
2. Description of Related Art
The known motor vehicle lock underlying the present invention (published European Application EP 0 637 665 B1/German Application DE 694 00 217 T2) is structurally comparatively simple because it has an inside actuation lever in the lock mechanism supported on the same stationary pivot axis with a coupling lever and a central interlock lever. In addition, the detent pawl lever which transmits the triggering motion to the detent pawl is supported on the housing-mounted pivot axis which acts in the same direction. Depending on the position of an anti-theft lever which is driven from the anti-theft drive, the inside actuation lever is active or inactive relative to the detent pawl. Incidentally, a child safety function is set up which can be activated or deactivated by an electric drive.
In the construction known from the prior art, it is feasible that, both in the xe2x80x9canti-theftxe2x80x9d position and also in the xe2x80x9cchild-safexe2x80x9d position, the inside actuation lever executes an idle stroke, and therefore, need not be deflected relative to the blocked lever of the lock mechanism against spring force. The lock mechanism is not exposed to increased forces by this free wheeling construction.
Based on the fact that all the levers are supported on pivot axes which act in the same direction on the housing, the prerequisites for low-force activation of the motor vehicle lock are good. Based on the use of the pivot axis of the inside actuation lever for supporting a host of other levers, the space requirement laterally is also relatively small. For this reason, the known motor vehicle lock is relatively tall in the axial direction of the pivot axes. Therefore, it cannot be installed everywhere.
Finally, the actuating forces for the detent pawl lever are relatively high due to the lateral offset of the pivot axis with respect to the pivot axis of the inside actuation lever in spite of being located in one plane.
A primary object of the present invention is to devise a construction for a motor vehicle lock with a lock mechanism which extends in essentially one plane, therefore with the pivot axes of the different levers of the lock mechanism which act in the same direction, that is optimized with respect to its operation and actuation.
The aforementioned object in a motor vehicle lock is achieved of the initially mentioned type by the pivot axis of the coupling lever being arranged on the inside actuation lever, free of the housing at a distance from the pivot axis of the inside actuation lever. Because the pivot axis of the coupling lever is arranged on the inside actuation lever differently than in the prior art, i.e., is not attached to the housing, but is at a distance from the pivot axis of the inside actuation lever, the coupling lever can be angularly displaced to different degrees both with respect to the detent pawl lever and also with respect to the central interlock lever. Therefore, the action which occurs can be different when the coupling lever is displaced, on the one hand, for the detent pawl lever, and on the other, for the central interlock lever. This yields another degree of freedom for the actuation of the motor vehicle lock.
In the following, the invention is explained in detail using two embodiments which are described with reference to the attached drawings.